A closer look
Why stay in a generic corporate hotel when you can sleep somewhere steeped in literal espionage? Once dubbed the 'Titanic of the Mountains,' this colossal transit hub on the Spain-France border was famously used as an illicit wartime route for smuggling gold, art, and fleeing refugees. After a train derailment destroyed a key bridge in 1970, everyone just walked away, leaving the magnificent Beaux-Arts structure to decay. Recently, brilliant architects gutted the ruins and turned the smuggler's paradise into an upscale destination.
